Real World Digital Photography Is a wonderful breath of fresh air
in the barren wasteland of the digital photography field. No one guessed the fad
would take off like it has, but today everyone seems to be sporting a digital camera
from school teachers to used car salesmen.

This trend has spawned a whole new category of questions mailed to LETTERS@
in the Design & Publishing Center. We've tried to keep up and answer as many
as we can, but time prevents us from helping everyone as much as we'd like to. Now
we can just refer everyone to Real World Digital Photography! ... Back in '96 when I got my hands on the first Cassio
I thought I was in heaven. But it didn't take long to see clearly that this industry
would have to go a long way before anyone would take it seriously. Today we've got
an array of cameras from the 2-megapixel $1,000 pro models, to a new one I saw at
Macworld intended for children that comes in at $99 and actually takes pictures as
good as that original $800 Cassio!

I'm surprised that the book industry hasn't spawned a whole slew of Bibles, Insides
and Dummies books for digital photography, but now they won't have to. They can save
a few trees.
Deke McClelland and Katrin Eismann have written the book that I would like to have
written, and they've taken into account that the digital photography field is populated
primarily by absolute beginners without a clue. This is good. ... Real World Digital Photography is wonderful stuff
for anyone who buys a digital camera and wants to utilize the photos for anything
more than snap-shot slide shows on the folks TV. While I disagree with some of their
information, it all checks out, and is quite good for novice to intermediate shutter
bugs. And for those who have never conducted photoshoots in professionally outfitted
studios, the information in the book is valid, and vital for success in publishing
the output from digital cameras.

... This is as much a general survey of digital cameras
as it is a handbook for shooting, capture, and manipulation of the shots. Through
400 pages Deke and Katrin take you through the workings of digital cameras, how they're
different from film cameras, and what it means to you. Then they give a bit of shopping
help in selecting a camera, and how to build a digital darkroom. (An oxymoron since
digital requires no darkroom!) ... You'll get practical image-editing techniques and
you'll see how to set up lighting, props, flash equipment and all the essentials
of capturing the right photo for your needs.... Deke pulls a lot of info from his other Photoshop
books, and we wish the writers would have addressed more information about the software
that comes with the various cameras. One source of questions we get are from readers
using the cameras who either don't own Photoshop, or who are attempting to make the
camera software jump through hoops. I do not think it would have been beneath Deke
to delve a bit into PhotoDeluxe which now ships with most of the better cameras...
but sad to say PhotoDeluxe is only mentioned once in the book. (Actually in a line
that entices you to buy more of Deke's books! That's marketing!).

... Additionally, the most popular use for digital camera
is still web work, and unfortunately this is a weak area of the book -- testament
to the fact that Deke is still primarily a print production guru and falls short
somewhat in imaging for the web. We suspect Deke's name is on the book for the use
of recycled Photoshop content, and sales appeal while the real meat and potatoes
comes from Katlin. Don't quote us on that! (He says with a shy grin.)... But folks, this is the ONLY book on Digital Photography,
and the one you should get. I've already learned a number of tricks and have answered
maybe a dozen of emails from LETTERS@. ... You've spent hundreds, maybe thousands on that digital
camera, now spend another $35 (at the Design Center) and make your photos look like
they were taken by a pro on pro equipment. Read Real World Digital Photography, use
the information and your photos will shine!

Special thanks to Doug Clifford for his participation as host and
coordinator of the &FOTOgraphic wing of The Design & Publishing Center. Doug is the webmaster for the
ACE Indexes, an annotated directory of North American photo commerce web sites, and
a well respected member of the creative online community.

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